Educator Effectiveness/Quality

This report, produced by the Center for American Progress, examines teacher evaluation practices in five charter schools affiliated with three well-established charter management organizations. It notes that overall, charters seem to have more teacher evaluation practices within them and teacher evaluation appears to influence teachers’ instructional capabilities in a positive way.

This report, produced by the Center for American Progress, focuses on the challenges in dismissing chronically ineffective teachers, those who are persistently ineffective and don’t improve with additional professional development or other types of supports. The report recommends that new types of comprehensive evaluation systems need to be put in place to provide support and feedback to teachers, and laws and policies must alter to allow for the removal of ineffective teachers in order to increase academic achievement for all students.

This set of four guides from Achieve, Inc., are designed to help state leaders look at the Race to the Top (RTTT) competition through a college- and career-ready lens, offering specific advice on topics such as standards and assessments; P-20 longitudinal data systems; teacher effectiveness; and low-performing schools; as well as promising practices that policymakers can use to build on their successes and maximize the opportunities available through RTTT.

This study from the Everyone Graduates Center aimed to evaluate the different ways of supporting teachers for implementation quality and impact on student learning. Using a randomized controlled trial design, the study assessed the impact of workshops, detailed lesson plans, and coaching on instruction of high school English language arts teachers. Data were collected over two years on a total of 41 schools with 84 teachers and 1,996 students.

The Eight Elements of High School Improvement framework provides a lens for mapping school, district, and state high school improvement efforts. This framework, updated from the original July 2008 version, incorporates new language and ideas from the U.S. Department of Education’s current education reform priorities.

This synthesis from American Youth Policy Forum identifies, summarizes, and analyzes research evaluations of school and youth programs, focusing on those that show gains for minority youth across a broad range of academic achievement outcomes from early childhood through advanced postsecondary study. Recommendations on how to raise the minority academic achievement are also provided for researchers, practitioners, families, community members, and students.

This brief by the National High School Center provides an in-depth look at the implementation and structural issues, as well as the needed support required to successfully institute Response to Intervention (RTI) at the secondary school level. It defines the RTI models, explores benefits and challenges faced at the high school level, shares a snapshot of implementation at the high school level, and outlines the necessary resources needed to support this work.

This report from the National Partnership for Teaching in At-Risk Schools outlines reasons why there are relatively few effective or highly qualified teachers teaching in at-risk urban and rural high schools when compared to their suburban counterparts. It suggests research-based solutions on how to attract and retain these highly skilled teachers for at-risk high schools.

This report from the Alliance for Excellent Education advocates an increase in teacher induction programs - such as Connecticut BEST, Santa Cruz New Teacher Project, Tangipahoa FIRST, and The Toledo Plan - to better prepare, retain, and support educators in their first years of service. It also provides follow-up resources and suggestions for ongoing teacher professional development.